Residents who have been impacted by flood waters and need help cleaning up, have been urged to call council's flood recovery hotline on 1300 545 040 and register your need as soon as possible.
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The free kerbside pickup for flood waste is continuing across the Mid Coast.
Registering with the flood recovery hotline will assist the work of the strike teams set up to support the community in the clean-up and the removal of flood waste, council's director of liveable communities, Paul De Szell said.
"Over the last five days more than 23,500 tonnes of flood damaged waste has been collected from homes, streets and businesses across the Mid Coast.
"This has been an enormous effort by the multi-agency strike teams and the fleet of over 50 trucks and other plant that have been working to remove waste from the kerbside."
Mr De Szell said the volume of waste collected during the last five days equates to approximately 94 per cent of the annual weekly red bin collection, which averages 25,000 tonnes.
"We know we still have a number of areas to clean up, and encourage the community to continue to use our kerbside collection program."
The kerbside collection means residents don't have to spend time carting their rubbish to waste management centres and council is able to divert the waste it collects from the kerbside away from landfills, which are expensive to build and have a finite capacity.
"We have large areas of the MidcCoast severely impacted by flooding, creating significant volumes of waste. We simply don't have the room in our landfills to accommodate the volume of waste that is expected."
Council is working in conjunction with Public Works Advisory to take the waste to a transfer point in Urara Lane, Taree and then onto a sorting facility at Minimbah. From there waste will be disposed of by Public Works Advisory without impacting on counciil's landfill capacity.
Council has a flood recovery hotline for waste and removal enquiries. The community is encouraged to call 1300 545 040 to register for their kerbside collection and for any assistance they may need from the strike team.
"It is important to register with us so we know what assistance is required, we want to make the most of the amazing resource we have with the strike teams before they move on," Mr De Szell said.
Fees for first week of landfill use to be reimbursed
All MidCoast residents who took flood waste to local waste management facilities between March 22 and 29 are eligible for reimbursement of their costs.
Councillors yesterday made a unanimous decision to support reimbursement of costs for those who transported their own waste to landfills.
To claim the reimbursement members of the community need to register online at midcoast.nsw.gov.au/floodrecovery or call the customer service centre on 7955 7777.
Reimbursement will only be paid subject to the production of a receipt.
Keep up to date with flood recovery
The MidCoast Flood Recovery Centre is operating from 2 Pulteney Street, Taree and is open from 9am-5pm weekdays to support community recovery. The centre brings a range of agencies and support together for impacted members of the community to access in a central location.
Council also has a flood recovery hub which is updated regularly at www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/floodrecovery.
